Hundreds attend New Haven costume party

By Zander Dryer

Local architect George Zdru envisioned a surreal cocktail
party in downtown New Haven, with fire-eaters entertaining dancing
partygoers. Mayor John DeStefano, Jr., envisioned a way to promote his
ongoing revitalization plans for the city, with residents enjoying a new
public space. Downtown business owners envisioned a chance to drive up
sales, with more people spending money in bars and restaurants.

HYURA CHOI/YH

But mostly "we all wanted people to come together and have a
good time," Zdru explained. With this goal uniting their different
visions of a Halloween party, New Haven residents, community organizers,
and business owners joined together to create the First Annual New Haven
Costume Party.

In its final form, the event offered dancing and live music to
hundreds of costumed Halloween revelers in the new Temple Street
Courtyardacross from the Omni Hotel and bordered by the Shubert
Theater, Chapel Street businesses, and the Crown Street Parking
Garage. Organizers transformed the center of the garage's circular
up-ramp into a dance floor, with lights projecting abstract patterns
on the inside of the ramp and loudspeakers pumping out dance music.
The steps of the Courtyard were set up as a stage for a performance by
Caribbean band Mikata, and green lights shone on the sides of surrounding
buildings to give the event an appropriately spooky air.

The party's genesis came this past summer, when the city finished work
on the Temple Street Courtyard. The $3.6 million project was undertaken
to link the Omni, the Shubert, and many restaurants and entertainment
venues along Chapel, Crown, and College Streets. The city demolished
two vacant buildings at 160 Temple St. and transformed what was once a
dangerous alley into the Courtyard.

Once the work was complete, DeStefano began searching for a way to
showcase the results. He turned to Sue Hartt, the executive director of
Market New Haven, a newly-formed nonprofit group organized to promote the
city. A joint project between the City of New Haven, Yale University,
and local business leaders, Market New Haven has received nearly $1
million in funds for its first year's budget. Hartt and others formed
a planning committee and began exploring different events that would
best showcase the Courtyard. They were joined by architect Zdru, who
is also the Facilities Manager at Yale Medical School, Barbara Feldman,
an organizer of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Michael
Morand, SY '87, DIV '93, Yale's associate vice president for New Haven
and state affairs, and, as Hartt put it, "a number of people who are,
in the mayor's eyes, cool."

The committed decided Halloween would be an ideal occasion to invite
residents into the new Courtyard. Zdru said the committee looked at
the Halloween Parade in New York City's Greenwich Village and tried to
model its efforts on that event's success. "We liked the way the
New York paradewith everyone marching and in costumewas
truly a participatory party," he explained.

Still, organizers struggled with different conceptions of what
the Halloween party would ultimately be. One initial idea was that the
event would be by invitation only, with guests paying $30 apiece for the
party and an open bar. "We wanted to restrict it somehow so that
only cool people could come," joked Hartt. Another idea was that
the event would be open to the public, but that there would be a cash
bar. Zdru said the committee rejected that idea "because it was
too complex. We didn't want to get in the business of carding people,
and we realized that people could go out for drinks ahead of time at
local bars and restaurants."

Ultimately, the planning group settled on the idea of a costumed
dance party and concert. Sponsors, who included the City of New Haven,
Yale University, the New Haven Parking Authority, the accounting firm
of Simione, Scillia, Larrow & Dowling, and C.J. Fucci Construction,
agreed to put up the $15,000 to $18,000 in expenses, and organizers
hired a production crew and began advertising the event.

Hartt said she was pleased with this year's event, estimating
that there were 300 to 400 people in attendance at the party's busiest
moments. She said she had plans to expand the event but emphasized that,
at least for the first year, "we needed to make sure people would
actually come." "Hopefully it will be easier to promote next
year," she added. "We'll be able to say, `Come to the Second
AnnualNew Haven Costume Party.' The idea is that every year
it will get bigger, much the way the Village's parade has."

Those who scoff at the notion that a small party could grow into an
event as massive as the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade would do well
to note that event's history. The parade began in 1973 with one puppeteer
taking his children and their friends from house to house. This year,
it was the largest parade of its kind, with 30,000 participants and over
two million spectators. It was covered by the international news media
and broadcast nationwide on two different television networks.

New Haven certainly has a long way to go. But there is nothing to
prevent a little city from having big-city dreams.